After the Goldrush-- '74 remake

[Rick]

In 1974 (in the Fall, as I recall), a vocal band had a hit with After the Goldrush, which had a lot of very spot-on harmonies and was MUCH better than Neil Young's original. Or at least I thought so at the time!

Can anybody remember the name of this band? Seems it was a folk band from the north of England, and they were never heard from again so far as I know.

I woke up in the middle of the night with that song running through my head, just out of nowhere. Haven't thought about that in probably 25 years-- funny how that happens.

Thanks,


Rick

[Robin]

Hi Rick,
I have no memory of a remake of After the Goldrush. I saw CSN AND Young live last year. They were awesome and Young did a lot of his solos. He's still got it after all these years. Maybe the remake was local to you in England?

[Rick]

Hey Robin,

Thanks, and I'm glad all of them are still alive. I spent a lot of time in my room playing Stephen Stills stuff also back then, thought I'd REALLY done something when I'd learned both guitar parts to the intro of Find the Cost of Freedom.

Well, I'm in Birmingham, Alabama,
so I have no idea what was big in England then! The reason I remember this was 74 was my freshman year of high school and the local radio station hired me to to disc jockey (and janitorial work!) at night and on the weekends, a job I held all through school. I had it made, I tell ya... But I remember this because it didn't sound like anything else on the air then, all a capella harmonies. Would love to have a copy of it, but cannot for the life of me remember who that was.

To jog your memory a bit, other things on Top 40 radio at that time were:

Having My Baby (ack!!)
Tell me Somethin' Good
Earache My Eye
Longfellow Serenade

And bunches of others I'm sure you can recall.

Another obscure one from that time I'd love to find was "Aw Shucks, Ain't Got the Bucks". Have no idea who did that either. Was sort of a Sly and the Family Stone sounding thing.

This was all still back in the days of vinyl when DJs still used felt-covered turntables to cue records like God intended.


Rick

[Bill]

Here ya go, Bub...

The non-Neil Young version of After the Gold Rush was done by a band called Prelude, and you can find it on a K-tel compilation CD called Out of Sight. I bought the CD not for that song, but for a song called Life is A Rock, but the Radio Rolled Me. Do you remember that one---it's a song in which the vocalist speed-sings names of bands, singers, record labels etc, all done in a bubble-gum sort of style.

Bill

[Robin]

Hey Bill --here are the lyrics for Life is a Rock...

home.att.net/~bubblegumusic/songliferok.htm

This song is evidence that white people actually invented Rap --back in 1974!!! I remember singing this song (or trying to) w/ my friends back in Jr High. Rappers Delite didn't come out until 79'.


Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)
By: Reunion
(Norman Dolph-Paul DiFranco-Joey Levine)
1974

B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddy, here's my ring we're goin' steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Rogers-Hart, Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin'

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Life is a rock but the radio . . .

Arthur Janov's primal screamin', Hawkins, Jay and Dale and Ronnie
Kukla, Fran and Norma Okla Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

Listen (remember) they're playing our song

Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey, Make it bad and play it funky

(Wanna take you higher!)

[Bill]

Unbelievable, Robin...

So few people know that song let alone know the lyrics. I've never been able to understand more than 1/10 of the words in this singer's amphetamine-inspired rave, and now that I know all of them, I wonder why this song doesn't have a more major minor spot in rock history. Maybe if the music itself had a little more edge to it..., or if the Ramones had done a cover of it. Too late for that to happen, I guess.

Yeah, the rhyming in this song is better than most of the rap I've heard, and if ya talk about the white precursors of rap, what about Convoy by CW McCall or Alley-Oop by the Hollywood Argyles?

Speaking of Rappers' Delite, did you know that the head of Sugarhill Records (the label that started rap w Rappers' Delite) was Sylvia Robinson, the same Sylvia who had a big hit about 1972 or 73 with the song Pillow Talk? She also had a song in the '50's called Love is Strange (M: "uh, how d'yu call your lover boy? S: "I say c'mere, lover boy").

Anyway, it's been fun. thanks again for the lyrics.

B

[LauraM]

Not sure if this mesage board still is read, but the song you are looking for is by a group called Player. Female lead vocal, and a very haunting rendition of Neil Youngs song.